Nekrasov conceived the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” as “ folk book" He began writing it in 1863 and ended up terminally ill in 1877. The poet dreamed that his book would be close to the peasantry.
At the center of the poem - collective image Russian peasantry, the image of the guardian of their native land. The poem reflects a man's joys and sorrows, doubts and hopes, thirst for freedom and happiness. All major events The lives of a peasant fit into this work. The plot of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is close to the folk tale about the search for happiness and truth. But the peasants who set out on the journey are not pilgrim pilgrims. They are a symbol of awakening Russia.
Among the peasants depicted by Nekrasov, we see many persistent seekers of truth. First of all, these are seven men. Their the main objective- find “man's happiness.” And until they find him, the men decided
IN the little houses don't toss and turn,
Don't see your wives
Not with the little guys...
But besides them, in the poem there are seekers of national happiness. One of them is shown by Nekrasov in the chapter “ drunken night" This is Yakim Nagoy. In his appearance and speech one can feel his inner dignity, unbroken by any hard work, nor a powerless situation. Yakim argues with the “smart master” Pavlusha Veretennikov. He defends men from the reproach that they “drink until they stupefy.” Yakim is smart, he understands perfectly why life is so difficult for peasants. His rebellious spirit does not resign himself to such a life. A formidable warning sounds in the mouth of Yakim Nagoy:
U every peasant
Soul, like a black cloud,
Angry, menacing- and it would be necessary
Thunder will roar from there...
The chapter “Happy” tells about another man - Ermil Girin. He became famous throughout the region for his intelligence and selfless devotion to the interests of the peasants. The story about Ermil Girin begins with a description of the hero's litigation with the merchant Altynnikov over the orphan mill. Ermila turns to the people for help.
And a miracle happened
Throughout the market square
U every peasant
Like the wind, half left
Suddenly it turned upside down!
Yermil is endowed with a sense of justice. Only once did he stumble when he excluded “his younger brother Mitri from recruiting.” But this act cost him severe torment; in a fit of repentance, he almost committed suicide. At a critical moment, Ermila Girin sacrifices her happiness for the sake of the truth and ends up in prison.
We see that the heroes of the poem understand happiness differently. in different ways. From the point of view of the priest, this is “peace, wealth, honor.” According to the landowner, happiness is idle, well-fed, happy life, unlimited power over the peasants. In search of wealth and power, “a huge, greedy crowd is heading towards temptation,” writes Nekrasov.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov also touches on the problem of women’s happiness. It is revealed through the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This is a typical peasant woman of the Central Russian strip, endowed with restrained beauty, filled with self-esteem. On her shoulders fell not only the entire burden of peasant labor, but also responsibility for the fate of the family, for raising children. The image of Matryona Timofeevna is collective. She experienced everything that can befall a Russian woman. The difficult fate of Matryona Timofeevna gives her the right to say to wanderers on behalf of all Russian women:
Keys from female happiness,
From our free will,
Abandoned, lost
From God himself!
Nekrasov reveals the problem of national happiness in the poem also with the help of the image people's defender Grisha Dobrosklonova. He is the son of a sexton who lived “poorer than the last shabby peasant” and “an unrequited farmhand.” A hard life gives rise to protest in this person. From childhood he decides that he will devote his life to the search for national happiness.
..about fifteen years old
Gregory already knew for sure
What will live for happiness
Wretched and dark
Native corner
Grisha Dobrosklonov does not need wealth and personal well-being. His happiness lies in the triumph of the cause to which he devoted his entire life. Nekrasov writes what fate had in store for him
The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia.
But he does not back down from the challenges ahead. Grisha Dobrosklonov sees that millions of people are already awakening:
Ratp The innumerable one rises,
The strength in her will be indestructible!
And this fills his soul with joy. He believes in a happy future for his native land and this is precisely the happiness of Gregory himself. To the question of the poem, Nekrasov himself answers that fighters for people’s happiness live well in Rus':
If only our wanderers could be under their own roof,
If only they could know what was happening to Grisha.
He heard the immense strength in his chest,
The sounds of grace delighted his ears,
The radiant sounds of the noble hymn -
He sang the embodiment of people's happiness.
Poem by N.A. Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the final work of the poet’s work. The poet reflects the themes of national happiness and grief, talks about human values.
Happiness for the heroes of the poem
The main characters of the work are seven men who go in search of happiness in Mother Russia. The heroes talk about happiness in disputes.
The first to meet on the way of wanderers is a priest. For him, happiness is peace, honor and wealth. But he has neither one nor the other, nor the third. He also convinces the heroes that happiness separately from the rest of society is completely impossible.
The landowner sees happiness in having power over the peasants. Peasants care about the harvest, health and satiety. Soldiers dream of being able to survive in difficult battles. The old woman finds happiness in a good turnip harvest. For Matryona Timofeevna, happiness is in human dignity, nobility and rebellion.
Ermil Girin
Ermil Girin sees his happiness in helping the people. Ermil Girin was respected and appreciated by the men for his honesty and fairness. But once in his life he stumbled and sinned - he fenced his nephew off from recruiting and sent another guy. Having committed such an act, Yermil almost hanged himself from torment of conscience. But the mistake was corrected, and Yermil took the side of the rebellious peasants, and for this he was sent to prison.
Understanding Happiness. Grisha Dobrosklonov
Gradually, the search for a lucky person in Rus' develops into an awareness of the concept of Happiness. People's happiness is represented by the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the people's protector. While still a child, he set himself the goal of fighting for the happiness of the simple peasant, for the good of the people. It is in achieving this goal that happiness for young man. For the author himself, this understanding of the problem of happiness in Rus' is close.
Happiness as perceived by the author
The main thing for Nekrasov is to contribute to the happiness of the people around him. A person cannot be happy on his own. Happiness will become available to the people only when the peasantry finds its own civil position when he learns to fight for his future.
Nikolai Alekseevich thought for a long time about this work, hoping to create in it a “people's book,” that is, a useful book, understandable to the people and truthful. This book was supposed to include all the experience given to Nikolai Alekseevich by studying the people, all the information about them, accumulated, in the words of Nikolai Alekseevich, “by word of mouth for 20 years.”
Gleb Uspensky
“I thought,” said Nekrasov, “to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of modern peasant life.”
Although the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” remained unfinished, Nekrasov fulfilled his promise. He really set out in the poem everything he knew about the people, what he happened to hear from their lips.
Seven temporary workers left to look for the truth about the happy man. The poet led the peasants along native land and showed that a happy person is the one for whom
Share of the people
His happiness
Light and freedom
First of all.
Nekrasov considers freedom to be a priority necessity.
In 1861, the authorities gave the peasants freedom, but no one became happier because of this. Actually, for real happy person No.
“The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” - N.A. writes in his poem. Nekrasov.
The peasants have been freed, but now they are enslaving themselves, since they cannot live any other way. They are already accustomed to this enslavement. They live as they did before the abolition of serfdom: poor, hungry, cold. Peasants are people who “didn’t eat enough and didn’t eat salt.” The only thing that has changed in their life is that now “instead of the master, they will be torn by the volost.” Their hard life is emphasized by everything: the description of the life of the people in songs, the names of villages, provinces and landscapes:
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryaeva,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Bad harvest too.
The whole truth is clearly visible in the poem folk life: the joyless, powerless, hungry side of her is shown. “A peasant’s happiness,” the poet exclaims bitterly, “holey with patches, hunchbacked with calluses.”
Each peasant has his own understanding of happiness, for some it is associated with struggle, for others with inaction. Looking for an answer to the question “Who can live well in Rus'?”, wanderers come to a fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. Having obtained vodka using self-assembly, they shout out to the festive crowd: if there is anyone happy, then they will pour him vodka for free. But it turned out that everyone was incredibly happy.
Happy is the soldier who survived twenty battles, the old woman who produced “up to a thousand turnips” in her garden, and many such “lucky ones.” From all this, the questioners realized that none of them understood what the word “happiness” even meant.
For the priest, this is “peace, wealth, honor,” but he has no peace, he has become poor, since the people have become completely poor, and the honor, just as the priest did not have, will never be.
But in the poem there are peasants who have not lost their ability to self-sacrifice, their spiritual nobility. These include Matryona Timofeevna, Savely, Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Perin, Agap Petrov and, of course, truth-seekers. They have their own personal goal set in life, which directs them in search of the truth. Truth-seekers represent people's happiness in the ease and gaiety of their lives:
I don't need any silver
Not gold, but God willing,
So that my fellow countrymen
And every peasant
Life was easy and fun
All over Holy Rus'.
In the understanding of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, happiness is unthinkable if there is no family and children. For her, happiness is patience and work. This position is also close to some other peasants.
Yakim Nagoy is a vivid image of a lover of truth, a righteous man who neglected possible financial well-being, making a choice in favor of spiritual transformation. Yakim lives in conditions similar to others, but previously he and his wife had saved 35 rubles, but during the fire he first rushed to save the pictures, and his companion - the icons. This means that hard life could not kill his love for beauty. The “bread” of the soul is more valuable to him than his daily bread. He, understanding the full breadth and inexplicability of the human soul, his ability to fight, ruined in wine, makes a fiery speech:
Every peasant
The soul is like a black cloud.
Angry, menacing - and it should be
Thunder will roar from there
It's raining bloody rain,
And it all ends with wine.
The image of Yermil Perin also stands out clearly: a pure, incorruptible “intercessor” of the people. But N.A. Nekrasov does not show it ideal hero, no, it shows that Ermila is, first of all, a person who has family, loved ones. After all, he wanted to send the son of a peasant woman instead of Mitri, but he himself admitted his wrongdoing. Then he was put in prison, but we don’t know exactly why: either for betraying the peasants, or for refusing to accept them. The image of Perin testifies to the spiritual forces hidden among the people, rich moral qualities common people. By happiness they mean truth, devotion, honesty.
The poem relentlessly follows the wanderers fairy world, where heroes meet. This hero is Savely. He is powerful, like Svyatogor - the strongest, biggest, but also the most motionless hero of all. He wants to get rid of the bonds of slavery, but does nothing significant for this. Of course, Savely, together with the Korezh men, freed themselves from Vogel, but for this he served twenty years in exile. Unfortunately, this tyrant will be replaced by another. Savely is a spontaneous rebel who has his own folk philosophy: “To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss.”
Even peasant patience for Savely is the personification of their strength:
Hands are twisted in chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
We walked along it - we broke down.
What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet
It rattles and rolls around
On a chariot of fire...
The hero endures everything!
But he is in no hurry to make premature conclusions regarding the future fate of the peasants:
I don't know, I can't imagine
What will happen? God knows.
He leaves everything to chance, only God knows what will happen. But his understanding of happiness is freedom, and this is the most important thing. Savely did not change his opinions, even after going through a thorny, difficult path.
The word “happiness” means different things to each person, which means the roads to achieving it are different.
One spacious
The road is rough,
The passions of a slave
It's huge,
Greedy for temptation
There's a crowd coming
The other one is cramped
The road is honest
They walk along it
Only strong souls
Loving,
To fight, to work.
The first road is the road of evil, the road of sin, along which all the rich go, who do not skimp on anything. The other road is the road of kindness, honesty and complacency, but at the same time it is the road of poverty and hunger. But the people walking along it are strong, and if they rebel, then nothing can stand against them. They only need to “wake up” from a long sleep, and they will win. We see this theme in the legend of the “two great sinners,” which calls for awakening, a call to rebel against the oppressors.
The reflection of revolutionary democratic ideas in the poem is associated with the image of the author and people's defender - Grisha Dobrosklonov. The main motive of his songs is love for his homeland and people. He prepares himself for exploits in the name of the people, the country and their freedom. Grisha thought that the abolition of serfdom could only be achieved through revolution. N.A. himself held the same opinion. Nekrasov.
Nikolai Alekseevich sincerely believed that the people would eventually get enough of their peasant lot and stop tolerating it. The poet was able to notice the “hidden spark” of the mighty internal forces, concluded among the people, looking forward solely with hope and faith:
The army rises
Uncountable,
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is one of the greatest Russian poets. The main theme of his works is the hard life of the common Russian people, peasants. In his poems and poems, he describes the heavy burden of serfs. The poet worries about their fate and with all his heart wants to make it easier. Nikolai Alekseevich is trying to convey this idea to other people with the help of his works.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” is also dedicated to the theme of the peasantry, it raises the theme of people's happiness.
In the poem, Nekrasov paints a portrait of a poor, dark, downtrodden Rus'. The abolition of serfdom did not change the situation in the country; corruption among high officials, drunkenness among peasants and other vices still flourish. To make the description colorful, the author uses many talking names villages and families. The villages are called “Zaplatovo”, “Dyryavino”, “Razutovo” and so on, which once again emphasizes the destruction of the country. The main characters of the poem set off on a journey through impoverished and downtrodden Rus', trying to find a happy person.
For her, happiness is a friendly family and voluntary marriage for love. Nose early childhood she had to share the difficult fate of Russian peasants. She did not marry for love, tragically lost her child and was worried about long separations from her husband, who went to work. In Matryona Timofeevna, the author reflected all the problems and difficulties in the life of ordinary women of that time. Being the weakest and most unprotected layer of the population, even among peasants, they could not always cope with the hardships of life. And even the abolition of serfdom had almost no effect on their situation.
Another significant image in the poem - Ermil Girin. For him, happiness is honor and respect gained by intelligence and kindness. He runs a mill where he works honestly, never deceiving anyone. Also being a literate person, he taught people writing. Thanks to his kindness, honesty and sincerity, Girin won the trust of people, he is respected and appreciated.
Fortunately, there are two possible roads. One of them is the path of personal enrichment. Nobles and officials follow this path to happiness. For them, wealth and power are the most important things in life. But I believe that this path cannot lead to true happiness, since it cannot be built on selfishness. Grigory Dobrosklonov chose a different path for himself - the path of intercession. He understands that this is a difficult, but beautiful and correct path, and this path will definitely lead him to happiness.
Nekrasov is the greatest Russian poet, singer of the people. When you read his beautiful poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”, you get the feeling that these are the peasants themselves talking about their problems, experiences and thoughts. He very accurately described the state of the people during the period of the abolition of serfdom and the concept of happiness for this people. For each of them it is different, and they are slowly moving towards their own happiness.
Updated: 2017-03-15
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Introduction
“The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” Nekrasov asked this question, formulated in the poem “Elegy,” more than once. In his final work, “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the problem of happiness becomes the fundamental problem on which the plot of the poem is based.
Seven men from different villages (the names of these villages - Gorelovo, Neelovo, etc. make it clear to the reader that they have never seen happiness in them) set off on a journey in search of happiness. The plot of searching for something in itself is very common and is often found in fairy tales, as well as in hagiographic literature, where a long and dangerous journey to the Holy Land was often described. As a result of such a search, the hero acquires a very valuable thing (remember the fairy-tale I-don’t-know-what), or, in the case of pilgrims, grace. What will the wanderers find from Nekrasov’s poem? As you know, their search for happiness will not be crowned with success - either because the author did not have time to finish his poem, or because, due to their spiritual immaturity, they are still not ready to see a truly happy person. To answer this question, let’s look at how the problem of happiness is transformed in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”
Evolution of the concept of “happiness” in the minds of the main characters
“Peace, wealth, honor” - this formula of happiness, derived at the beginning of the poem by the priest, exhaustively describes the understanding of happiness not only for the priest. It conveys the original, superficial view of the happiness of wanderers. Peasants who have lived in poverty for many years cannot imagine happiness that is not supported by material wealth and universal respect. They form a list of possible lucky ones according to their ideas: priest, boyar, landowner, official, minister and tsar. And, although Nekrasov did not have time to realize all his plans in the poem - the chapter where the wanderers would reach the tsar remained unwritten, but already two from this list - the priest and the landowner, were enough for the men to become disappointed in their initial view for luck.
The stories of the priest and the landowner, met by wanderers on the road, are quite similar to each other. Both sound sadness about the past happy, satisfying times, when power and prosperity themselves fell into their hands. Now, as shown in the poem, the landowners were taken away everything that made up their usual way of life: land, obedient slaves, and in return they were given an unclear and even frightening covenant to work. And so the happiness that seemed unshakable disappeared like smoke, leaving only regrets in its place: “... the landowner began to cry.”
After listening to these stories, the men abandon their original plan - they begin to understand that real happiness lies in something else. On their way they come across a peasant fair - a place where many peasants gather. The men decide to look for the happy one among them. The problematic of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” changes - it becomes important for wanderers to find not just an abstract happy person, but a happy one among the common people.
But none of the recipes for happiness proposed by people at the fair - not a fabulous turnip harvest, not the opportunity to eat enough bread, not Magic power, not even the miraculous chance that allowed us to stay alive does not convince our wanderers. They develop an understanding that happiness cannot depend on material things and the simple preservation of life. This is confirmed by the life story of Ermil Girin, told there at the fair. Yermil always tried to act truthfully, and in any position - burgomaster, scribe, and then miller - he enjoyed the love of the people. To some extent, he serves as a harbinger of another hero, Grisha Dobrosklonov, who also devoted his whole life to serving the people. But what kind of gratitude was there for Yermil’s actions? They shouldn’t consider him happy, they tell the men, Yermil is in prison because he stood up for the peasants during the riot...
The image of happiness as freedom in the poem
A simple peasant woman, Matryona Timofeevna, offers wanderers a look at the problem of happiness from the other side. Having told them the story of her life, full of hardships and troubles - only then was she happy, as a child she lived with her parents - she adds:
"The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will,
Abandoned, lost..."
Happiness is compared to for a long time an unattainable thing for peasants - a free will, i.e. freedom. Matryona submitted all her life: to her husband, his unkind family, the evil will of the landowners who killed her eldest son and wanted to flog the younger one, injustice, because of which her husband was taken into the army. She receives some kind of joy in life only when she decides to rebel against this injustice and goes to ask for her husband. This is when Matryona finds peace of mind:
"Okay, easy,
Clear in my heart"
And this definition of happiness as freedom, apparently, is to the liking of the men, because already in the next chapter they indicate the goal of their journey as follows:
“We are looking, Uncle Vlas,
Unflogged province,
Ungutted parish,
Izbytkova village"
It is clear that here the first place is no longer given to “excess” - wealth, but to “purity”, a sign of freedom. The men realized that they would have wealth after they had the opportunity to manage their own lives. And here Nekrasov raises another important moral problem– the problem of servility in the consciousness of Russian people. Indeed, at the time of the creation of the poem, the peasants already had freedom - the decree on the abolition of serfdom. But learn to live like free people they have yet to do so. It is not for nothing that in the chapter “The Last One” many of the Vakhlachans so easily agree to play the role of imaginary serfs - this role is profitable, and, what is there to hide, habitual, not forcing one to think about the future. Freedom in words has already been obtained, but the men still stand in front of the landowner, taking off their hats, and he graciously allows them to sit down (chapter “Landowner”). The author shows how dangerous such pretense is - Agap, supposedly flogged to please the old prince, actually dies in the morning, unable to bear the shame:
“The man is raw, special,
The head is unbowed”...
Conclusion
So, as we see, in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” the problems are quite complex and detailed and cannot be reduced in the end to simply finding a happy person. The main problem of the poem is precisely that, as the wandering of the men shows, the people are not yet ready to become happy, they do not see the right way. The consciousness of wanderers gradually changes, and they become able to discern the essence of happiness beyond its earthly components, but every person has to go through this path. Therefore, instead of the lucky one, at the end of the poem the figure of the people's intercessor, Grisha Dobrosklonov, appears. He himself is not from the peasant class, but from the clergy, which is why he so clearly sees the intangible component of happiness: a free, educated Rus' that has recovered from centuries of slavery. Grisha is unlikely to be happy on his own: fate is preparing for him “consumption and Siberia.” But he embodies in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” the people's happiness, which is yet to come. Along with the voice of Grisha, singing joyful songs about free Rus', one can hear the convinced voice of Nekrasov himself: when the peasants are freed not only verbally, but also internally, then each individual person will be happy.
The given thoughts about happiness in Nekrasov’s poem will be useful to 10th grade students when preparing an essay on the topic “The problem of happiness in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.”
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